Netflix Viewers Praise A Tourist's Guide To Love For Its Vietnamese Representation
You can find more than one Rachael Leigh Cook romantic comedy on Netflix these days, and her latest movie has garnered praise from viewers for its Vietnamese representation.
"A Tourist's Guide to Love" stars Cook as a travel industry professional named Amanda who decides to use a work trip as a fresh start after her long-term relationship ends. Once in Vietnam, Amanda meets her charming tour guide, Sinh (Scott Ly), who encourages her to embrace spontaneity. Though the film falls victim to all of the classic rom-com clichés — like a proposal gone awry, and an unexpected love triangle — there's one thing that everybody is praising: viewers love that Amanda has a Southeast Asian love interest.
Over on Reddit, u/RLB210 explained it straightforwardly: "A movie about a WF traveling to Asia and falling in love with an attractive proud Asian male will soon be the #1 movie on the world's largest streaming service with 52% female user base." They continued, "This is also great positive southeast Asian male representation, something we haven't seen."
Beyond the romance, the audience appreciates that the movie features positive representations of Vietnamese culture. "Vietnam is also portrayed very well and respectfully which is a nice change to how the Western media usually portray Asian countries. Altogether, I consider it a decent effort and a solid win in the continuance of achieving positive AM representation," wrote Reddit user u/Striking_Impress8077.
That's a win-win, for sure. Nonetheless, while the film may have some great qualities, most viewers do agree that "A Tourist's Guide to Love" is nothing to write home about.
Netflix viewers love the Vietnamese representation, even if the movie is lackluster overall
There are some great movies streaming on Netflix, not to mention a few duds, but viewers think that "A Tourist's Guide to Love" falls somewhere in the middle. Amanda and Sinh bring out the best in each other, a fact made all the more apparent when Amanda's ex-boyfriend makes an unexpected appearance towards the end of the film. Even though fans appreciate seeing more Vietnamese representation on a popular streaming service, the general consensus is that the plot of "A Tourist's Guide to Love" is too formulaic.
"IMHO, it's a predictable by the numbers romantic movie featuring [an] Asian man instead of a European and Vietnam instead of some idyllic Euro country. Watch it for the beauty of Vietnam and that's about it," said Reddit user u/Travelonaut. For some, Vietnam itself is the star of the film. "Bad movie overall, but good for AM representation. Pretty boring if not for the overall scenes of Vietnam," wrote Reddit user u/asianmovement.
Few would debate the fact that this rom-com employs tired plot devices and predictable dialogue, but viewers are still tuning in to see Scott Ly's performance. Reddit user u/Bruise_Leee couldn't help but agree with these common sentiments, writing, "The movie was only ok, but it's a good win for Southeast Asian Males for once."
Despite these lukewarm reviews, it's nice to see Netflix making an effort to diversify their content, and hopefully it continues with future projects.